The physical, thermophysical and transport properties of the substances are important in physics, chemistry, biochemistry, medicine, polymer science, food science, materials science, thermal science and engineering. This invention involves the experimental measurements of thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, specific heat, specific absorption rate, thermal power, heat transfer coefficient, heat of reaction and the membrane permeability in substances by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). This invention is applicable to a wide range of substances and objects and the advantages of the present invention are:
The NMR method is a non-contact and non-invasive method. Measurement of thermal diffusivity in substances is important to a number of applications ranging from medicine to chemistry and engineering. The applications of this method in medicine are in thermal treatment of tissues (normal or abnormal) and tumors (benign or malignant) in oncology (human or animal patients). The method can be used in monitoring the diffusion of thermal energy during the treatment of tumors. The method is also applicable to materials science, chemistry and engineering. The method allows for measurement of thermal diffusivity in very small quantities of substances.
The measurement of thermal conductivity is important in a number of applications in physics, chemistry, biochemistry, medicine, materials science and engineering. The non-contact and non-invasive measurement of thermal conductivity can be used during the thermal treatment of tissues and tumors in oncology. The method also finds a number of applications in materials science, chemistry and engineering. The method allows for the measurement of thermal conductivity in very small quantities of substances.
The measurement of specific heat and specific absorption rate is important to materials science, chemistry, physics, medicine and thermal science. The measurement of specific heat allows for the measurement of specific absorption rate in substances subjected to electromagnetic radiation. This method is applicable to characterization of tissue absorption rates in radiology and oncology. The method has a number of applications in chemistry, biochemistry, materials science and engineering. The method also provides means for the measurement of specific heat and specific absorption rate in small quantities of the substances.
The heat transfer coefficient is important in a number of applications ranging from medicine to food science and engineering. The non-invasive and non-contact NMR method of measuring heat transfer coefficient can improve the thermal treatment of tissues and tumors in oncology. The method also finds applications in food science where food is frequently subjected to thermal treatment in aseptic processing. The other applications are in measurement and characterization of biological and thermal systems.
The heat of reaction is important in a number of applications in chemistry, biology, biochemistry, medicine, thermodynamics and materials science. NMR provides a non-invasive and a non-contact method to measure the changes in thermal energy in substances. The NMR calorimeter method can be used in measurement of heat of reaction in chemistry, biochemistry and biomedical applications. The method can also be used to measure the thermal power in thermal science, medical and biomedical application.
The measurement of membrane permeability is important to research in various disciplines. The mechanism of water and ion transport through membranes can be studied and quantitative measurements characterizing the membrane systems can be made using nuclear magnetic resonance methods. The differences between the membranes can be seen using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and the apparent membrane permeability can be measured experimentally in membrane and solution systems.